Pakistan, March 16 -- The former governor of India's central bank and renowned financial wizard, Raghuram Rajan, issued a grim warning on BBC Radio 4 in mid-March that capitalism was "under serious threat" as it had "stopped providing for the many. "The "many," in turn, would "revolt against capitalism" if the status quo remained unchanged. And as history testifies, revolutions are rarely bloodless.

His premise is bewildering as it conflates capitalism, a system of organising the economy, with the duties of a state. Revolutions are routinely the product of poor governance and absent accountability, and not per se the pursuit of profit.Otherwise, the long-defunct Soviet Union would today be the beacon of socio-economic equality.

In their...